Kevin was employed by Maine Beer Company for 3.5 years before deciding to join Hidden Cove. Maine Beer Company has since moved brewer Mark Fulton into the position of Director of Brewing Operations. While losing a member of the team is never an easy thing, Dan Kleban, Owner of Maine Beer Company tells me “we are in a great position from an operations standpoint with strong leadership and a great production crew.” The beer and recipe devolpment at Maine Beer wont see any changes, just a realigment in the brewhouse.

I reached out to Richard Varano, Owner of Hidden Cove Brewing Company to talk about the brewhouse changes. On the phone Richard seemed excited and somewhat shocked to have Kevin on board and also very confident in what the future will bring. He informed me that they will be changing most of their regular lineup beers, brettanomyces will still be used at the brewery but more for specialty beers than their regular lineup. The First beer Kevin will be working on is a Red Belgian Trippel fermented with red wine yeast and finished in Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Collection barrels and following that a he will design and brew a new West Coast style IPA.

As the Maine Beer scene develops I don’t doubt that we’ll see more of this kind of activity, experienced brewers leaving to open their own breweries or moving to find a new challenge and creative freedom at existing breweries.